In our economy there are a lot of designers and developers looking for work, whether it is full-time employment, contract work, or freelance opportunities. Fortunately, there are a number of great places to find these types of positions. In this post we’ll look at several sites that include specialized job boards that include web/graphic design and web development opportunities…

Every digital typeface from free to a $1,000 font pack goes through a similar design process. It’s rigorous for a beginner and does require an understanding of foundational typographic principles. But for what it’s worth, learning how to create a font from scratch is one of the most fulfilling creative endeavors in digital design.

Professional font design takes years to master, but this shouldn’t dissuade you from learning the process. Once you understand the steps needed to create a new font you may be surprised how easily they can be replicated.

This guide is meant for hobbyists and typographers who want to get into the world of font design. Bear in mind I won’t be covering specific techniques in font creation software, but rather the steps necessary to go from initial idea to completed font. At some point you will need a font creation program and I’ll cover the most popular choices to guide you along the way…

If you’re looking for a portfolio template to showcase your art, photography, or design work, the wide selection of quality themes makes WordPress a great option. While there have been many high-quality portfolio themes available for WordPress for several years, recently there has been a significant increase in the number of responsive portfolio themes.

So if you would like to visitors to be able to easily view your portfolio site on a phone or tablet, in addition to a desktop, a responsive theme is a great choice. In this post we’ll showcase 45 responsive portfolio themes, so you’re sure to find one that will meet your needs…

You as a web designer have the responsibility to suggest the right style and amount of animation necessary. A website should have enough humanity (via motion) for viewers to connect but not so much animation that it distracts from the message. Animation should increase the usability of a site, not make it more confusing to navigate. But of course, the nature of some websites allow for much heavier animation than others.

The following are 10 websites that utilize animation in varying degrees. Some are fully interactive animated websites, while others only include animation in certain sections of the design. All are great examples of when and how animation works for a variety of purposes…

Designers who keep up with the latest tricks, tools, resources, and trends remain competitive much more easily than those who never check in on what’s new. And one of the easiest ways to keep your skills sharp and savvy as a graphic or web designer is to follow the best design blogs in the industry.

The only problem? There are way too many to choose from, it seems, especially if you are a newbie to online blogs. And, not every design blog is worth your time. So, I have put together a list of web and graphic design blogs that are my favorite and what I believe to be the best for a designer’s “continuing education.”

While there are many more excellent blogs to be found, the following list is limited to those geared to both graphic and web designers as well as developers. The list excludes blogs of a purely inspirational nature, since these, while certainly inspiring, don’t offer much in the way of actual skills. Another important part of this list are several blogs that offer freelance/ business advice and a few that help designers stay on top of the latest industry news.

Now I know that you don’t have the time to follow all of these, but my recommendation is to browse through each one and subscribe to those that interest you the most. You can always unsubscribe later if you find that some of the design blogs aren’t helpful to you…

“The most intuitive design tool available” – is what one user said recently about X Theme 4.0. That is typical of the comments found in the reviews and testimonials others have published with respect to the latest version of this, the best-selling WordPress theme on the market. It is of course natural to expect incremental improvements as each new version is released for a given theme. After all, that is what upgrades are all about.

Version 4.0 was not about fixing bugs. There are few if any bugs that need fixing in this premium theme. This latest version is all about new and improved features, and there is nothing incremental about it.

The theme’s authors took a giant leap forward by adding a new page builder, based on a brilliant concept, into the mix. To say website developers are happy or pleased with this latest version would be a gross understatement. They have been raving about it. Read on, and you will understand why the response to 4.0 greatly exceeded Themeco’s expectations…

Designers love free icon sets. Having quality icons can help to make a site’s design look complete, and can also help with the usability of the site. Social media icons are some of the most commonly used icons, especially in blog design.

Fortunately, there are a number of free sets of quality social media icons. In this post we’ll feature over 50 social media icon sets from various designers. Click on the links to be led to the source where the icons can be downloaded. As always when you are dealing with freebies, check the terms and conditions to be sure that you’re using them in a way that is allowed by the designer…

Being a freelancer is hard work. Not only do you have to keep up with work projects but you also have to keep track of invoicing, communicating with clients, marketing yourself, and even making sure you have enough work for upcoming months to keep bills paid. This can make freelancing quite time consuming and exhausting. Thankfully, there are solutions to keep clients flowing in without taking away from the actual money-making tasks.

Bringing in new clients can be less of a pain and time suck with the right methods, and seasoned freelancers are just the ones to ask. The following 11 freelancer designers are experts in the field and have a lot of experience in client acquisition. So, we asked these experts the same question:

What advice can you give on finding new clients and/or making yourself visible enough that your work queue remains full?

While their answers vary slightly, most of them show that gaining new clients can become almost automated, if you put in the right leg work in the beginning. As you read through the advice below, you may want to think about which fits you the best. Every freelancer varies in their gifts and skills, so pick the method that will be easiest for you to keep up with until the time comes to let your efforts bring the clients to you…

Animation on the web has transformed radically over the past 5 years. SVG animation is one of the newest techniques to manipulate graphics on a webpage. Although SVG has been supported for a long time, it only recently gained support in a majority of web browsers.

With greater support comes a greater audience and more safety for developers to test out cool ideas. Over time these ideas turn into common trends as they’re adopted by hundreds of designers. I’ve picked out a few examples that best demonstrate these SVG animation effects and how they can be applied to website layouts…

A few years back I launched what was called “Vandelay Premier” to test my ability to sell “premium” stock graphics. While I would only consider it a moderate success, one main thing I quickly realized was that it was nearly impossible for a blogger like myself to provide enough specific content to make everyone happy. I still get emails every week from our members requesting specific items that I just don’t have the time or resources to provide.

My goal with this website has always been to create enough quality content to keep my readers engaged, happy, and coming back for more. Since it is impossible for me to provide millions of stock photos and graphics in our shop, I might as well send you off to a place where you have a much higher chance of finding what you need…